The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Review/Transcript
Bolbi: 'Okay! Your president says cut the chapping and start the slapping! Slap, slap, slap! Clap, clap, clap! Slap, slap, slap! Clap, clap, clap! ''(Intro) I was actually pretty excited to revisit this show. Jimmy Neutron ''is one that I watched all the time as a kid, and I really wanted to see if it held up. Nowadays, ''Jimmy Neutron ''is mainly known for the memes that came out of it. You've probably seen more than your fair share of out-of-context Hugh Neutron clips. It's really easy to assume that this show is popular because of its "gimmicks". After all, this was the first "all CGI" Nicktoon. And while parts of ''KaBlam! ''and ''Action League Now! were stop-motion, being entirely 3D set Jimmy Neutron ''apart at the time. For what it's worth, I suppose we should talk about the animation first, as that's probably the most attention-grabbing thing about ''Jimmy Neutron. The CGI isn't something that rivals Pixar obviously, even for the time, but, it's still pretty good. The animation avoids a lot of the pitfalls that you'd find in many 3D shows, like uncanny-looking people or stilted movements. The animation does its job fairly well. It's fast-paced as it needs to be for the humor, and the characters do actually look like people. On some level at least. The only character design that's a little bit iffy is that of, Jimmy Neutron himself. I-I don't know how to tell you this, but he's got a-a Hershey kiss on his head. Also he looks like a younger version of the adoring fan from Oblivion. The only time the animation becomes distracting in hindsight is with liquids. Like when the characters get wet or when they're around water. Water's one of the hardest things to get right in a 3D environment, and this show is a pretty good showcase of that. Jimmy Neutron ''is also a really good showcase of how important not only stylization is, but the correct type of stylization when using a technology that you know will be outdated. The characters that were made for ''Jimmy Neutron ''look pretty good in ''Jimmy Neutron. The characters that weren't...do not. At some point, they made three made-for-TV movies: The Jimmy-Timmy Power Hours. In which The Fairly Oddparents ''and ''Jimmy Neutron ''universes would collide, and pretty much all of ''The Fairly Oddparents ''characters looked '''TERRIBLE '''when they sent them into the ''Jimmy Neutron ''world. There is only so much stylization you can really get away with in a 3D environment. Especially on a television budget. At first glance, ''Jimmy Neutron ''sounds like Nickelodeon's response to ''Dexter's Lab, half a decade later. It stars a boy genius and his escapades as he invents things to help solve the problems that an elementary school kid would experience. But those similarities are...really superficial. ''Dexter's Laboratory ''pretty much only focused on the humor. While ''Jimmy Neutron ''certainly is a funny show, it does put a higher focus on the story. ''Dexter's Lab ''was a show with absolutely no continuity; the world could blow up at the end of every episode for all they cared. ''Jimmy Neutron ''does''' have storylines and it has some small arcs that do grow and change as time goes on. It's nothing that'll prevent newcomers from enjoying seasons 2 or 3, but it might be worth watching the episodes in order, so you'll know who people like Professor Calamitous are when they end up popping up in later episodes. It's not the first Nicktoon to do this, Fairly Oddparents ''was also like this, and these two shows together definitely seem to set the tone for a more story-driven shows in the future, that had a more loose relationship with the status quo, which helped build the bridge towards shows like ''Danny Phantom ''and later ''Avatar. I can't say that Jimmy Neutron ''is one of my overall favorite shows ever made, or, even one of my favorite Nicktoons, but I do think that it is a really good show and one that I would often sit down and watch whenever it was on. As a kid, I liked it because of the cool science fiction scenarios that this show would often have. It ''is ''similar to ''Dexter's Lab ''or to be honest, many other cartoons. You got your time travel stories, going back to see the dinosaurs, bringing an historical figure back to the present. ''Jimmy Neutron ''actually managed to do theirs without pissing off an entire country, so, there's that. Then you got your "aliens" episodes, your "cloning" episode, your "heist" episode. These things have been done in cartoon after cartoon, and it often does use plots basically verbatim from ''Dexter's Laboratory, or, even uh, Fairly Oddparents, like, when Jimmy made himself stupid, just like Dexter did. On the flip side though, some of Jimmy Neutron ''episodes could have very unique and interesting stories ['Caption: Like Carl Weezer getting pregnant.]. Like the very first episode where...Jimmy Neutron animates his pants and they basically take over the city. But those are far and few in between. As far as storytelling goes, Jimmy Neutron ''isn't exactly a major Bashan of originality. But you know what they say, right? There's nothing new under the sun. It's not about the ideas that you use, it's all in the execution. And that's what sets ''Jimmy Neutron ''apart from something like ''Pixel Pinkie. Pixel Pinkie's cloning episode was like every other cloning episode you find in any cartoon ever. "Kid wants clone, kids get clone, clone causes chaos." In Jimmy Neutron, the clones all have very unique personalities, from a fifties greaser to a clown to...Richard Simmons. '"Happy" Clone: '''Isn't it a beautiful day? Aren't these birds absolutely amazing? Isn't it great to be alive? I've seen these plots before, but while I can't say ''Jimmy Neutron ''has fresh takes on them, I will say that they do their best with what they're given. I-I've never seen a clone of a cartoon character become Richard Simmons. What really helps this show is its humor. It ''is ''an incredibly funny show. '''Evil Clone: '''Buddy, want a pie? '''Guy: '''Yeah! '''Evil Clone: '*shoves it in the guy's face* *evil chuckle* Ya can't beat the classics! While not every single joke is a winner, there's a reason that a great deal of moments have been memed to death. They're just as funny in ''context, sometimes more so. And sometimes, they do have pretty unique twists on typical ideas. A typical idea is making a normal character a genius...and that turns them into an asshole. When Sheen turns into a genius, his head grows to the size of a skyscraper. What I think makes this show work so well is its characters. What I said about the stories, applies to the characters as well. But doubly so. We've all seen "the boy genius," "the nerdy friend," "the weird friend," "the dumbass dad," "the girl that our main lead absolutely, does not, forever, never, actually, ever, EVER, for the rest of eternity, actually have a crush on, except when he does." ''Jimmy Neutron ''has all of these characters, but it has some of the best takes on these characters that I've ever really seen. Everything that Sheen says on this show is memorable. Honestly, I think that his non sequiturs work better than even someone like Ed from ''Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy. '''Jimmy: '''Sometimes it's a heavy burden being a man of science... '''Sheen: '''I know what you mean, Jimmy. That's why I decided early on to sabotage my highly scientific mind with cartoons and sugar. Because instead of just shouting "Ultra Lord!", he goes, so far in depth to the inner workings of his mind. And then you see the reactions of each of his friends and it just completes the joke. Hugh Neutron is another ''incredibly memeable character. Hugh: 'I don't mind! Once when I was seven years old, I sat on a banana, and of course, that changed my life. Now, you know me. You know how much I hate stupid dads in cartoons. But I think that Hugh Neutron is one of the most '''forgivable '''examples of this trope. I can't say that he ''never causes any problems for Jimmy, but when that happens it's usually part of the plot, not a random joke. Most of the time, Hugh is largely harmless, and unlike say, Timmy Turner's dad, it's very, very ''clear that Hugh actually cares for uh...his "Jimbo." And...Hugh wants to help him and see him succeed. That's...something that's...really, really special, something really unique to the show. For better or worse. The only problem is that Hugh just really isn't able to work on Jimmy's wavelength. And, Hugh doesn't just pull random desires out of his ass. What you need to know about Hugh is that he loves his ducks, and he really, really likes pie. So when there's pie or ducks involved, it makes sense for his character to try and go out of his way to, care for ducks or obtain pie. It's not say, Timmy Turner's dad welding a fridge shut because that's what the joke calls for and no other reason. ''Jimmy Neutron ''is one of those shows that seems like everybody likes, but I don't know anybody who would outright call it their "favorite show ever." I'm sure it's someone's favorite, considering how many memes of it are created, but I don't think it'll be ever as "in demand" as something like ''Spongebob ''or ''Avatar. And that's fine, not every single cartoon needs to aspire to be "the best there ever was like no one ever was before." Sometimes a cartoon just wants to entertain you for eleven or twenty-two minutes the best way that it can, and that's okay once in a while. That's not to say that this show doesn't have any really good or ''really memorable episodes. Some of them do break through to greatness. Usually though, it's for the specials and the TV movies. The "Power Hours" are pretty good stories, demon Timmy notwithstanding. And I think that "Stranded" is one of the most loved episodes of the series. Although it has boy genius Jimmy Neutron thinking that Australia is not a continent and straight A student Cindy thinking that you could literally see the equator as if it was a line on the ground. My favorite episode of the series has to be "Win, Lose, or Kaboom!" [Caption: Which I don't have clips of]. I think that it really showed off the characters of the series stronger than any other episode. And it had a great amount of tension within it. It's some of the few episodes that took some time to, well, have some "quiet time." And not to mention, I am a sucker for Survivor ''parodies. The pilot movie is also pretty decent, I mean it's probably not worth nominating it for an Oscar, but back then, only like '''five '''animated movies came out in the States every given year. So if your movie was animated, or even semi-animated, it was automatically nominated. Because they only made that category so they would never ever, ''ever ''have to nominate an animated film for "Best Picture" anymore, and to make it literally impossible for an animated picture to win "Best Picture." So yeah, check this one out if you got a spare afternoon and don't know what else to do with it. I don't think that you'll be disappointed. I could easily see this show being someone's comfort cartoon, cartoon that you could pull on if you don't really wanna think too hard or get too invested, but you still wanna be interested and laugh along the way. '''Announcer: '''Next on Nick, it's- ''(Shows clips of ChalkZone theme) (End Credits Theme: "Back to the Lab", a Dexter's Laboratory song) Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts